Great article. Money runs everything and US is as corrupt as anywhere else.
Acupuncture is covered by CMS for pain now I believe.
Individuals deeply involved in opioid settlements, rehab industry, and representing disability insurers were allowed to write the CDC guidelines for pain treatment and control a narrative that scapegoated pain patients and their physicians for addiction and overdoses when the populations barely intersect and now less than 1% diversion is occurring. Previously the DEA admitted diversion occurred prior to distribution under their watch. Regardless they continue to cause the seriously ill and dying to live and die in agony and physicians to be stripped of assets, tried in the media, and jailed. I keep waiting for someone to catch on.
As I recall, when Obamacare was floated and ultimately passed, wasn’t didn’t healthcare make up one sixth, or 16.7% of our economy? Now it is up to 18.3%!? It is undeniable that the corporate takeover of medicine has accelerated, with increasing costs of providing care, in the past decade. I would argue that we are no healthier as a nation. In fact, I would argue the reverse. Until we get a handle on obesity and other chronic conditions tied to our lifestyle, measures such as CAC screening are spitting in the wind and just adding additional costs. In a parting shot to the scam that is Obamacare, I believe there are more uninsured now than ever. If you have Medicaid as your insurance, you have insurance in name only. If you get insurance from an exchange and your deductible is is so high you cannot afford it, do you really have insurance at all. Medicine is seriously broken. I am glad to be retiring as a clinical practice physician.
Stuff like this, is what contributes to the runaway freight train that is the cost of US healthcare….all in service of rather dubious results, based on various outcome measures.
And man, talk about conflict of interest for the authors. I hope WSJ at least published it with a “paid advertisement “ font.
There is virtually no scientific or real world evidence that supports anything the modern stone age medical mafia does. Nothing to support the use of most drugs, vaccines and mRNA substances. Nothing that supports the use of many tests and procedures as far as those options being the better options.
Overall, the question of whether a patient is better off with a medical intervention verses no interventions has never been fully answered. Doctors don't care and big pharma certainly doesn't care about what their drugs do to a patient. All they see is a sickness or disease and its bombs away and we will sort out the damage later, if the patient is still alive.
Dr. Buchanan hot the nail on the head. There is absolutely no data to suggest that breast arterial calcification has any relationship with coronary artery disease
CAC scoring of cardiac arteries is actually very valuable in tracking heart diseases in asymptomatic persons. What should we do? Wait until the first heart attack? If they survive, treat the now damaged patient. If they die, say, “well, I guess they had heart disease”. And yes there are actions you can take to improve your chances of reducing the effects of heart disease. One of the biggest: quit eating bread, grains, sweets, sugars. Insulin resistance is the leading factor in the cause of heart disease, but not the only one.
When business completes it's takeover of medicine, it will need more and more sick people in order to increase profits. Thus, doctors will be incentivized to "produce" more illness so they can treat it. The first victim will be preventative medicine (which we know is the most effective disease-fighter we have).
I have a degree in Finance so for a time I had several subscriptions to financial publications, and the WSJ was the one I kept for many years. I used it for financial analysis until one day I realized what I was reading wasn't impartial financial analysis, but a paid promotion. I honestly don't know if I changed, or the WSJ changed. I don't know if maybe it just took me years to figure out that most of what gets pushed as "expertise" and "knowledge" is nothing more than someone trying to sell me something. This was more than 10 years ago... has everything always been as corrupt as I can see it now?
Thank you. You buried the lede. The information in the paragraphs that followed: "If this would not help patients, whom would it help?" should have begun the article.
Repeat after me: "The dose of radiation used for a screening mammogram of both breasts is about the same amount of radiation a woman would get from her natural surroundings over about 7 weeks." From the American Cancer Society.
Mammography screening causes more than 50,000 breast cancers each year in the USA.
Great article. Money runs everything and US is as corrupt as anywhere else.
Acupuncture is covered by CMS for pain now I believe.
Individuals deeply involved in opioid settlements, rehab industry, and representing disability insurers were allowed to write the CDC guidelines for pain treatment and control a narrative that scapegoated pain patients and their physicians for addiction and overdoses when the populations barely intersect and now less than 1% diversion is occurring. Previously the DEA admitted diversion occurred prior to distribution under their watch. Regardless they continue to cause the seriously ill and dying to live and die in agony and physicians to be stripped of assets, tried in the media, and jailed. I keep waiting for someone to catch on.
Excellent 👌 Nailed it!
As I recall, when Obamacare was floated and ultimately passed, wasn’t didn’t healthcare make up one sixth, or 16.7% of our economy? Now it is up to 18.3%!? It is undeniable that the corporate takeover of medicine has accelerated, with increasing costs of providing care, in the past decade. I would argue that we are no healthier as a nation. In fact, I would argue the reverse. Until we get a handle on obesity and other chronic conditions tied to our lifestyle, measures such as CAC screening are spitting in the wind and just adding additional costs. In a parting shot to the scam that is Obamacare, I believe there are more uninsured now than ever. If you have Medicaid as your insurance, you have insurance in name only. If you get insurance from an exchange and your deductible is is so high you cannot afford it, do you really have insurance at all. Medicine is seriously broken. I am glad to be retiring as a clinical practice physician.
Stuff like this, is what contributes to the runaway freight train that is the cost of US healthcare….all in service of rather dubious results, based on various outcome measures.
And man, talk about conflict of interest for the authors. I hope WSJ at least published it with a “paid advertisement “ font.
There is virtually no scientific or real world evidence that supports anything the modern stone age medical mafia does. Nothing to support the use of most drugs, vaccines and mRNA substances. Nothing that supports the use of many tests and procedures as far as those options being the better options.
Overall, the question of whether a patient is better off with a medical intervention verses no interventions has never been fully answered. Doctors don't care and big pharma certainly doesn't care about what their drugs do to a patient. All they see is a sickness or disease and its bombs away and we will sort out the damage later, if the patient is still alive.
Dr. Buchanan hot the nail on the head. There is absolutely no data to suggest that breast arterial calcification has any relationship with coronary artery disease
When you want to know what is really happening, just follow the money.
CAC scoring of cardiac arteries is actually very valuable in tracking heart diseases in asymptomatic persons. What should we do? Wait until the first heart attack? If they survive, treat the now damaged patient. If they die, say, “well, I guess they had heart disease”. And yes there are actions you can take to improve your chances of reducing the effects of heart disease. One of the biggest: quit eating bread, grains, sweets, sugars. Insulin resistance is the leading factor in the cause of heart disease, but not the only one.
Author, I love your points. I have seen the WSJ run articles with opposing viewpoints. Have you reached out?
When business completes it's takeover of medicine, it will need more and more sick people in order to increase profits. Thus, doctors will be incentivized to "produce" more illness so they can treat it. The first victim will be preventative medicine (which we know is the most effective disease-fighter we have).
Thank you for exposing our corrupt medical-research-industrial-complex. Now, would you all please do a piece on Opptune for glioblastoma?
It seems ridiculous, costly, uncomfortable and likely a scam. Just wondering if I’m right about that.
Thank you for everything you do.
I have a degree in Finance so for a time I had several subscriptions to financial publications, and the WSJ was the one I kept for many years. I used it for financial analysis until one day I realized what I was reading wasn't impartial financial analysis, but a paid promotion. I honestly don't know if I changed, or the WSJ changed. I don't know if maybe it just took me years to figure out that most of what gets pushed as "expertise" and "knowledge" is nothing more than someone trying to sell me something. This was more than 10 years ago... has everything always been as corrupt as I can see it now?
Just another reason why I have lost all trust in the medical industrial complex.
Thank you. You buried the lede. The information in the paragraphs that followed: "If this would not help patients, whom would it help?" should have begun the article.
Mammograms cause cancer. Rockefeller medicine at its finest.
If it is repeated enough, it will be true.
Repeat after me: "The dose of radiation used for a screening mammogram of both breasts is about the same amount of radiation a woman would get from her natural surroundings over about 7 weeks." From the American Cancer Society.
Mammography screening causes more than 50,000 breast cancers each year in the USA.